Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you’re out of luck

As the Kindle takes off in popularity, losses and thefts will as well. After …

We have covered what you can do if your laptop has been stolen, but with the proliferation of other portable gadgets—cameras, cell phones, e-book readers—theft recovery applies to more than just your computer. An Ars reader recently told us a tale of woe involving the loss of his Kindle DX on a flight home and his subsequent efforts to get it back. Unfortunately, he was unable to do so, although he was able to see that whoever found it had unregistered his Amazon account from the device.

This made us wonder: is there any way to use technology to recover a lost Kindle? After all, the Kindle has built-in wireless connectivity through Sprint, and Amazon has the apparent ability to reach into people's devices to yank back content. There must be some way to figure out where the device is, or at least shut it down remotely to deter thieves. Right?

Right?

Our reader, Justin Smith, said that Amazon's Kindle Support told him that there's no way to send a kill signal down to the Kindle and have it shut off remotely. This is "something which I feel would be beneficial in a situation like this, where recovery of the device is unlikely," he told us via e-mail.

Unfortunately, Amazon did not feel the same way. Kindle customer service told Smith that there's no way to remotely brick the device. "If someone contacts us after losing their Kindle or having it stolen, we will de-register the Kindle to prevent purchasing on the registered account," Amazon's Director of Communications Drew Herdener told Ars via e-mail. He declined to directly answer questions about remote bricking.

Similarly, there appears to be no easy way to find out the location of the device—at least not from the user's perspective. Customer service told Smith that "there are some options available with Sprint, since the device communicates over their network, but he was unwilling to discuss them with me." Herdner would not directly acknowledge that there was a way to triangulate the device, but stated that the company will "respond to appropriate requests for information from law enforcement officials."

This is assuming, of course, that the Kindle's wireless is turned on at the time of attempted triangulation. The truth is, there aren't many ways to recover a lost or stolen Kindle—unlike a laptop, it's very limited in power and capabilities. Developers can't create third-party products that report information back to the Internet and, given the explosive response to Amazon's recent debacle over the deletion of certain e-books from people's Kindles, many users would not welcome having Amazon track their Kindle's location.

At the same time, companies have long been able to remotely wipe a lost BlackBerry, and iPhone owners can now do so directly through MobileMe whenever the mood strikes them. Would it behoove Amazon and other e-book makers to enable customers to do this as well? Thanks in part to the Kindle, e-books are making their way into the mainstream and more people than ever are carrying the devices around. Users might welcome a way to send a signal down to a specific Kindle (authenticated by serial number perhaps) that would make it unuseable and perhaps even display a message saying that it has been lost or stolen, a laApple's "Find My iPhone" feature.

Of course, the other downside to losing a Kindle (besides unsuccessfully trying to frustrate the person who now has it) is the fact that users can no longer access their purchased Kindle books unless they use the Kindle iPhone app or purchase another Kindle. "Not only could I not read them if I had them due to their DRM," Smith told us, "but my purchased content is not even available to me through the Amazon site so long as I do not have a Kindle registered—I confirmed this to be the case with one of the two first-level customer service people."

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui